A mystery object, thought to be a military or law enforcement drone, flying in controlled airspace over Denver virtually triggered a catastrophic mid air crash with a business jet Monday.
The pilot of the Cessna jet radioed air site visitors controllers to warn them that “A remote controlled aircraft” had flown previous his plane far too close for comfort.
“Something just went by the other way … About 20 to 30 seconds ago. It was like a massive remote-controlled aircraft.” the pilot mentioned in the transmission that was captured on the reside air site visitors audio web site liveatc.net.
The craft was reported as getting about 8,000 feet over sea degree, or about 2,800 feet over the ground, at the time the pilot reported the seeing it. It did not show up on radar.
The sort of drones utilised by NATO generally fly at 10,000 feet and below. Other tactical military drones can fly up to 18,000 feet.
Denver 9News reports that the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, which it has described as probably “extremely unsafe.”
“The threat is there from a collision standpoint,” an FAA spokesman stated.
In a statement to USA Today, the agency said: “The FAA is investigating the incident and will consider to positively determine the object the Citation pilot reported, exactly where it came from and who was operating it.”
Aviation expert and former NTSB investigator Greg Feith told 9News that he believed the object could have been either a military or police drone.
Sources and more information:
• Spy drone could have almost brought down a plane in Colorado
An airline pilot came close to crashing his plane near Denver, Colorado this week after encountering a mysterious object in the sky thought to be an unmanned drone aircraft. A tape recording made available this week confirms that the pilot of a Cessna Citation 525 CJ1 radioed air traffic controllers outside of Denver on Monday after nearly…
• Spy drone could have almost brought down a plane in Colorado
• Spy Drone Almost Causes Passenger Jet Crash
• What was it? Unknown flying object nearly causes mid-air collision above Denver (Drone?)